


Signs and Signals

by EachPeachPearPlum



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, American Sign Language, Awkwardness, Clint Barton Is a Good Bro, Deaf Clint Barton, M/M, Matchmaking, Public Transportation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-02
Updated: 2019-11-02
Packaged: 2021-01-18 19:29:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21282044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EachPeachPearPlum/pseuds/EachPeachPearPlum
Summary: For the prompt: "X was talking to a friend in sign language in public transportation, using both hands so not holding anywhere, bus/train suddenly stops and X falls onto Y, who catches him. X immediately turns his face to his friend to quickly sign "He's so damn hot", without knowing Y is fluent in ASL, then apologetically types "I'm so sorry" in his phone, holds it to Y's face. Y signs "It's okay", X is horrified and he blushes like hell"(In which Clint hates the subway, his job, and days when he loses his hearing aids, but is greatly cheered up when his dumbass best friend falls into the lap of a handsome stranger.)
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Clint Barton, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Comments: 14
Kudos: 313





	1. Signs and Signals

**Author's Note:**

  * For [redsixred](https://archiveofourown.org/users/redsixred/gifts).

> For Red, who provided the prompt, and will hopefully forgive me for doing a crappy job of following it. Hope it makes you happy anyway, hon.  
Thanks to the people on the Stucky Book Club discord, particularly SiriuslyMarvelObsessed for providing a sensitivity read. Any remaining errors are mine and mine alone, and I welcome constructive commentary on anything you spot (feel free to message me on my very blank [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/dreaminglypeach) if you don't wish to comment here).  
Love, Peach x

Clint hates the subway at this time. Or, really, he hates it all the time, but it’s worse at rush hour.

He couldn’t find his left hearing aid when he rolled out of bed twenty minutes late this morning, which has led to a very long, very shitty day of making do with lip-reading and half-heard words, and his best friend isn’t quite as fluent in ASL as he thinks he is. Sure, Clint is stupidly grateful that Bucky’s gone to the effort to learn another language so that they can still communicate whenever Clint temporarily misplaces one or both of his aids and the background noise is too much for him to easily converse aloud, but talking to him can be a lot like attempting to decipher drunk texts at the best of times. The fact that they’re currently swaying in a packed subway car really doesn’t make it any easier.

The train lurches to a halt, and Clint manages to grab the closest handrail fast enough to keep his balance. Bucky, on the other hand, isn’t quite so lucky, winding up in the lap of a tall, blond guy behind him.

Clint laughs, because that’s the kind of dick he is, while Bucky scrambles to stand up again and the blond tries to help him. It’s absolutely fucking awkward, and if Clint was any kind of decent person he’d offer Bucky a hand up, but Bucky has just planted a hand on the blond’s thigh to push himself up, and they’ve both gone fantastic shades of red.

“Shit, sorry,” Bucky says.

“No worries,” the blond replies, steadying Bucky with a hand on his arm as the train jolts back into motion again.

“_If you’re going to sit on someone, at least you picked a fit one_,” Clint signs, once the blond has let Bucky go.

Bucky scowls at him. “_No idea what you’re talking about_,” he replies.

It’s then that Clint notices Tall Blond Guy is staring at them, eyes wide, which is uncomfortable but hardly unusual; in Clint’s experience, signing in public makes him the equivalent of a zoo exhibit. He doesn’t like, but it says a lot more about the person staring than it does about Clint, and he’s not going to stop talking just because other people think they have the right to gawp at him when he does.

That said, TBG’s stare is less _look at the freaks_ than it is interested, and Clint can’t decide if the faint tinge to his cheeks is residual embarrassment from Bucky landing on him or something else.

It’s easy enough to find out, though.

“_Sure you do_,” he says to Bucky. “_Tall, blond and handsome is absolutely your type._”

There’s no doubt about it; TBG is definitely blushing a little more, even as he pulls his cellphone from his pocket, tapping furiously at it.

Clint is suddenly rethinking his stance on taking the subway.

“_Maybe_,” Bucky agrees with a grimace, then shakes his head. “_But I won’t be his._”

“_He could like guys._”

“_Even if he does_,” Bucky argues, his expression making it clear just how unlikely he thinks this is, “_and even if a guy who looks like that is single, he’s not going to want to date _me_. Too much baggage._”

Clint would kick him in the shin, but they’ve already had one balance related incident and he has zero intention of being a second one. As such, he has to use his words to express how dumb he thinks Bucky is being.

“_First_,” he answers, doing his best impression of Nat’s _don’t try that shit with me, mister_ look; it’s probably a poor imitation, but it’ll just have to do, at least until they’re stationary and Clint can go back to the shin-kicking plan. “_Anyone who’s been through what you’ve been through is entitled to have baggage, so don’t pretend you don’t deserve it. Second, anyone worth anything would be willing to get to know you anyway. And third, you have nothing to lose, so you might as well give him your number and see what happens._”

“_This is our stop_,” says Bucky, then turns his back, because he’s an evasive bastard and more determined to get out of talking about his refusal to put himself out there than Clint thought.

Or, _shit_, it actually is their stop, and Clint winds up having to shove his way through the people getting on the train.

They’re off the platform and most of the way out of the station before he manages to catch up with Bucky, and Clint is very much not happy with him.

“_You did that on purpose_,” he says, speaking aloud as well as signing so that Bucky can’t pretend he’s too busy walking to listen to him. “_I don’t understand why you won’t even consider it_.”

“_Because it’s not worth it_,” Bucky argues as they step out onto the street and turn left towards their apartment. “_What’s the point in giving my number to someone who won’t ever use it?_”

It’s about then that Clint realises TBG is following them, and even then it’s only because he catches sight of the guy waving emphatically and very obviously out the corner of his eye.

Clint moves out of the way of other pedestrians, snagging Bucky by the sleeve and dragging him after him.

“_What now?_”

“_Something in my shoe_,” Clint lies, kicking his left sneaker off and making a show of shaking it out in between glances over Bucky’s shoulder as TBG approaches them. He seems both taller and blonder than he did in the dim light of the subway, and there’s a very determined set to his broad shoulders. Clint makes sure to delay until TBG is almost next to them, then jabs Bucky with his elbow and nods his head to indicate he should turn around.

Bucky does so, then looks back at Clint, his expression both incredulous and more than a little miffed; Clint just elbows him again, then gives TBG his undivided attention.

“_Hello,_” he signs, ignoring the even more incredulous and definitely verging on pissed off but also sort of mortified look Bucky gives him.

“_Hi_,” TBG says. His eyes flick towards Clint every now and again, but his focus is definitely on Bucky. “_I’m bi and very single and I nearly died twelve times before I turned twenty so I know all about baggage. Can I buy you a coffee?_”

He’s as red as Bucky is by the time he finishes, but Clint has to give him props for courage, certainly a hell of a lot more of it than Bucky displayed. Yeah, it’s got to be easier to approach a stranger with that kind of information when you already know they’re interested, but it’s still pretty damn bold, and Bucky needs to get his shit together and answer before TBG decides his prolonged silence means he’s not interested.

“_Oh_,” TBG adds. “_I’m Steve._” He fingerspells it, then signs something Clint thinks is an adapted form of _protect_, which, Clint knew from the staring and blushing that he had a reasonable grasp of ASL, but having his own name sign means he’s an accepted part of the community rather than just someone with a passing familiarity with the language, and he is definitely impressed.

Bucky’s still practically crimson, but that does nothing to stop him turning his back on Steve long enough to glare at Clint.

“_I hate you,_” he says emphatically, eyes narrowed.

“_Sure you do_,” Clint agrees easily; Bucky might be pissed at him now for not letting on that he noticed TBG/Steve was eavesdropping, but Clint is pretty sure he’ll be over that by, oh, maybe the second or third date. “_Go for coffee._”

He wouldn’t push, but 1) Bucky hasn’t been on a date since he left the service and has way too many hang ups about his scars to put himself out there, 2) Bucky definitely thinks Steve is worth a second look because Clint caught him giving him several looks both before and after he accidentally sat on him, and 3) one day in the future Clint is going to be Bucky’s best man and this is absolutely the embarrassing meet-cute story he wants to be telling when that happens.

Yes, Clint is pushing, but if he wants Bucky to live happily ever after, pushing is what he has to do.

“_You don’t have to,_” Steve says, looking disheartened. His shoulders are slumped, head ducked a little lower, and Clint knows he’s not actually shrunk but it certainly looks that way. Abruptly, Clint feels a whole lot crappier about this; it’s one thing to encourage his friend to take a chance on asking out a stranger, but when that stranger then decides to ask his friend out instead and his friend doesn’t immediately say yes… Yeah, Clint feels like a dick. “_Sorry. I should go, sorry_.”

“No!” Bucky says, before Clint can even get close to a way to make this better, loud enough that Steve turns back to them. “I mean, yes, coffee, yes. Um, please?”

Steve full on beams at him, the pair of them both blushing like idiots. “Now?”

“Yeah,” Bucky agrees; he _isn’t_ beaming, at least not to the same extent as Steve is, but he’s definitely smiling more brightly than Clint’s seen from him in a while.

_Okay_, Clint thinks. _My work here is done_.


	2. Bonus

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (If you wanted to know who Steve's texting)

**Steve: **Guys I’m on the subway and this guy just fell and landed in my lap.

**Sam:** Are you okay? Is he okay?

**Tony:** Is he hot?

**Tony: **Priorities, Sam

**Steve: **He and his friend are talking in ASL about how I’m his type.

**Steve: **Yes, we’re fine.

**Tony:** Is he hot?

**Tony:** I’ll keep asking until you answer me

**Sam: **Do they know you understand it?

**Tony:** Answer me

**Tony:** ANSWER ME!!!!!!

**Steve:** Shit the friend’s looking.

**Steve: **He knows.

**Tony:** IS. HE. HOT????!!!!????!!!!

**Steve:** The friend wants him to ask me out.

**Steve:** Yes, Tony, he’s hot.

**Steve:** What do I do?

**Tony:** Say yes!

**Sam: **Say yes?

**Steve:** He says I’m probably straight and not single and he has too much baggage.

**Steve:** And that this is their stop.

**Tony:** FFS go after him!

**Sam:** Hate to agree with him but yes.

**Tony:** And remember my support when you’re choosing a best man!

**Sam:** Please. Remember Tony’s proposal to Pepper when you’re choosing a best man.

**Tony:** That proposal was beautiful

**Tony:** You’re just jealous

**Sam:** And your birthday party last year.

**Tony: **I forgot about the seafood

**Tony:** It could happen to anyone

**Sam: **And the speech he gave at Peter’s graduation.

**Tony:** Yeah ok but there were mitigating circumstances

**Sam:** Like what?

**Tony: **I was drunk?

**Sam:** That doesn’t make it better!

**Tony:** Makes it funnier though

**Sam:** Not for Peter.

**Tony:** Back me up Steve

**Tony: **Do you really want your bachelor party planned by mr responsible here?

**Sam:** Come on, Stark. You know you’re not winning this.

**Peggy:** You do both realise Steve isn’t reading these now, right?

**Peggy:** And, I think you’ll find, if anyone is going to be Steve’s best man, it will be me.

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked this idea but thought _hey, if I was writing this, I would have done…_ you are in luck! I’ll be participating in the Stucky remix fest, so you may well have a chance to tell this story your way. Sign ups open on 10th January, and all other info can be found [here on tumblr](https://stuckyremix.tumblr.com/).


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